Red T. Hawk, The El Paso
International Airport Mascot

The Project

Here at CultureSpan, it’s always a blast to create mascots for our clients, from a human-sized cigarette used to prevent smoking, to a team of five characters called The El Paso Electric “Power Pack” that educate kids about power safety and renewable energy. So when El Paso International Airport asked us to create a representative for their brand, we were happy to put our skills in flight.

The Approach

The team at El Paso International Airport was extremely open to creative suggestions, with the only caveat being that the mascot should be representative of our region and connected to air travel. As with all projects we undertake, we started to do our homework, drafted a few concepts and reached out to our community for insight and feedback. Early iterations of our mascot included options like a cloud with a bubbly personality, a charming jet plane, and even a black-tailed jackrabbit named Radar!

We finally arrived at the perfect character, who took the form of a red-tailed hawk, which is common to our region of the northern Chihuahua Desert. The red-tailed hawk is a majestic bird with striking markings that can often be seen soaring throughout El Paso’s skies. We felt this steely-eyed hawk would be a great representative for the airport, and their team readily agreed.

 

The design for our mascot was to make her a female pilot, named Red T. Hawk. Her backstory began with her as a jet fighter pilot, which was also a nod to our local military base Fort Bliss, among the largest military installations in the world. Now, many years later, she dually spends her days at El Paso International Airport as a safety expert and greeter to business travelers, vacationers, and her favorite guests, children. To round out her persona, we imbued her with the characteristics of strength, courage and honesty, making her the perfect role model for children and a positive representative for the airport.

From pencil sketches to full color renderings and finally a fully-realized mascot, it was a joy to watch Red come to life and spread her wings, so to speak. Before landing at El Paso International Airport, we teased her arrival to build the buzz about our new avian amiga. She was finally unveiled at a city council meeting and made quite an entrance by sharing pilot bomber jackets with the likes of our city manager and even the mayor.

Now she’s a hit wherever she goes, and kids and adults alike can’t get enough of her. We even developed a junior pilot’s swag bag complete with coloring pages, stickers, paper airplanes and pins all emblazoned with Red’s logo and likeness.

It’s always great when we can fly free creatively, and it’s even better when the project is a soaring success with our clients. If you happen to fly through El Paso International Airport, make sure you say “hi” to Red. She’ll be happy to see you!